On the night of July 26, a United Nations observer post on the border of Lebanon and Israel was attacked by the Israeli army. Four UN observers were killed in the attack, including Du Zhaoyu from China. Their deaths are a great loss for the UN, the countries that have sent armies there, and their families.
On the morning of July 27, a few hours after this tragedy was confirmed, Chairman Hu Jintao "immediately asks the departments concerned to condemn this action to attack the peacekeeping force," according to Xinhua News Agency. The Israeli ambassador to China cancelled a meeting at the embassy at which he was to report on the current situation in Lebanon, and he rushed to an emergency meeting at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The attacked observation post with a clear symbol of the UN had existed for a long time, and the attack happened after Israeli Prime Minister Olmert promised that the UN camps would not be attacked by the Israeli fire. The UN commander to southern Lebanon was also in touch with the Israeli military officer that day, emphasizing the importance of protecting the base from attack.
It is common sense that if the Israeli military marked the exact locations of UN's peacekeeping armies and bases on their maps as "locations that absolutely cannot be attacked," it would have been evitable for the UN camps to be attacked. However, the attack still happened.
What Was the Problem?
In this battle in Lebanon, the international environment Israel faces is very different from before. Hezbollah is hardly popular in international public opinion. Even the leaders of some major Arab countries have publicly denounced Hezbollah for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and touching off such a destructive conflict. No Arabic country wants to see wars spreading, and no religious group wants to join the Hezbollah's "liberation."
After the war broke out, the international society only hoped Israel could exercise restraint and not use excessive force from its superior arsenal. Public opinion around the world seemed to lean toward empathizing with the cause of Hezbollah, but the United States firmly supported Israel's campaign of revenge.
We can say that Israel is in a positive international environment. The only thing is that they should pay attention to the proper requests of the international society and not harm too many innocent people.
In the current situation, the Israeli government and it's high-level military advisors should be aware of the serious consequences of attacking UN bases and wounding or killing UN peacekeeping forces. These kinds of actions only strengthen the position of Hezbollah and its supporters.
So what really happened? Did Israel intentionally bomb the UN observers?
It's possible that the Israeli Director General could have had such a motivation. For a long time, the Israeli military has been complaining about the UN peacekeeping troops located in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL troops) and UN observer posts on the border in Lebanon. Especially after the Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon, Israel complained bitterly that UNIFIL was not doing its job of preventing rocket attacks on northern Israel. Israel accused UNIFIL of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah activities, while UNIFIL snorted at the "arrogance" of the Israeli military.
Regarding the UN post at Khiyam where the four observers were recently killed, Hezbollah guerillas had been launching massive attacks from right beside and around it—in the vicinity of the disputed Shaaba Farms. Because the Israeli military suffered significant losses, very likely they became extremely angry at the UN observers. Besides, on the day of the incident, the post at Khiyam was within the scope of Israeli raid. Israel had been bombing and shelling the area consistently in response to Hezbollah attacks.
When the area around the UN post at Khiyam became a battlefield, especially when Israeli troops became bogged down and the fighting became intense, Israeli commanders could have made a mistake in judgment and accidentally targeted the UN post. Or they could have been misled by some faulty intelligence. A myriad of things could have happened in the heat of combat that could have led to the unfortunate incident.
In Israeli's history, there are actually many instances where its military command violated military law and caused big disasters. For example, the slaughter of Egyptian prisoners of war at the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 is still a discussion topic among historians. The suspected involvement of faulty information from Israel's intelligence division is still being investigated. This death incidence is the sixth such incidence for UN personnel that has occurred in the Lebanon war. Hezbollah fighters are Shia guerillas that have set up a long-term separatist regime by force of arms in southern Lebanon. In addition, their character is that they have been very creative in selecting training sites, weapon storage sites, as well as battlefields to launch attacks on Israeli targets. They always choose villages with heavy population, especially Christian villages, or villages right next to UN posts from which to launch their attacks. They do this so as to force the Israeli military to kill as many innocent civilians as possible when they return fire.
There are so many incidents of Israeli use of excessive force in retaliation against guerilla groups. One extreme incidence occurred on April 18, 1996. In order to punish Hezbollah for bombarding Israeli land, Israeli troops launched a massive military attack called "Grapes of Wrath." When this attack was about to come to an end, when UN Security Council was just about to vote on the 1052 resolution to demand immediate cease-fire, Israel dropped a large bomb on a UNIFIL cafeteria in Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians who had gone to the cafeteria seeking shelter. Israel was universally condemned by the world for this bombing.
Upon investigation, it was found that just a few meters from the cafeteria were Hezbollah missile launchers. Obviously, the missile launchers were the intended target of the air strike. The Israeli military explained that the bomb was guided by a system that automatically fires back at the location from which enemy missiles are launched. Why was the Hezbollah firing rockets from a position just meters from a building holding Lebanese civilians—knowing full well that the Israeli military would return fire?
Similar incidences happened repeatedly during that conflict. Even the battalion commander of the Chinese Engineering troop within the UN peacemaking troops there at the time publicly complained to the media that Hezbollah forces were intentionally launching missiles from right next to UN posts. This is obviously done to make Israel look bad—and it seems to be a trick that works pretty well.
This time, whether Israel was deceived one more time by Hezbollah, or whether the commander of the Israeli forces became too agitated and made a foolish error, will be judged based on results from the ongoing investigation.
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